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HARPER
Laptop?Check.
Orange juice? Check.
Popcorn? Check.
Not the ideal lunch, but it’ll do for now. Definitely a fantastic post-nap snack.
I look at the time on the laptop when it rings. Noon. Right on time.
A second after I click the answer button for the video call, my best friend’s face fills the screen.
“Tara.” My smile is so wide, my lips stretch past the point of comfort, but I don’t care.
“Harps. How are you?” Her smile matches mine, and I take a moment to simply take her in.
Tara’s brown curls piled on top of her head. A thin layer of red lipstick left on her lips. Her brown eyes sparkling at me. She seems happy. I’m not sure if it’s because of our conversation or because of her new life on the other side of the world.
“I’m good. How are you?” It’s only been a few days since we texted after I got back from my California trip. But for some reason, it feels like forever.
Even though it’s been a month since she left for England, I’m still not used to not seeing her all the time, and we haven’t been able to video chat as often as we’d have liked either.
The five-hour time difference doesn’t always make it easy, especially with how busy Tara is with her new job. With building her new life. Making new friends. Exploring her new home.
Away from me.
While I’m still sitting here doing nothing new. Except for growing a baby, but that’s more of a coincidence than anything, definitely nothing that was on my to-do list for this year.
I swallow past the lump in my throat, or at least try to, while also doing my best to keep my feelings from showing on my face. I’m two seconds away from throwing a pity party, and neither one of us needs that.
Tara also doesn’t need to know I miss her like crazy or that I’m lonely. Incredibly lonely. I’ve never been a social butterfly like her, but I didn’t realize how much of a loner I’ve become until everyone left my life.
I used to have more friends. Not close friends, but friends, nonetheless. But I learned rather quickly the majority of them had apparently been Ben’s friends, not mine, and those friendships were eliminated with our divorce. Severed cleanly like I was a broken limb that needed to be cut off and discarded.
The separation from Ben, mixed with being let go at my job right before my mom left to travel the world with her new husband, had been enough to distract me from the fact I had no one else but Tara in my life. Then she left too. It all happened so fast, my brain wasn’t able to keep up.
Aaaaaand let’s put the brakes on for this sad story. You know it won’t help. Plus, you’re going to run out of tears soon otherwise.
Oh, shut it.
Great, now I’m talking to myself in my head. This is what it has come to.
“You okay?” Tara’s worried voice helps me focus back on the screen and the deep frown on her face.
“Mmm, yeah, sorry. I’m fine.”
I let out a dramatic breath, and Tara tilts her head in her don’t-bullshit-me way.
“Harper, come on. Spit it out.”
I shrug. “Just exhausted.”
It would be so easy to tell her what’s really going on, but what good would that do if I only end up making her miserable, as well? There’s really no point in that.
“Well, you’re baking a human. That’s a lot of work.” She pops something in her mouth I can’t see. Chews. Swallows. All while regarding me with her penetrating gaze. “That’s not all, is it?”
I shrug again.
